9. "A gibing spirit": imitation,
adaptation and parody

Canadian playwrights' concern that Shakespeare's prominence
adversely affected the growth of an indigenous theatre holds
some truth, not only because his centrality in theatrical
repertoires made it unnecessary to create new plays, but also
because of the adverse influence his works exerted as models
for dramatic writing in the nineteenth century, a time when,
elsewhere, nationalism and cultural revival were flourishing.
Indeed, Canada's political position as a dominion within a
British empire is parallelled by the derivative nature of
nineteenth-century Canadian drama. Pseudo-Elizabethan drama,
like Charles Heavysege's Saul--praised in the
nineteenth century but not since--is but the most
obvious example of the failure to transplant the
Shakespearean model into new soil.

If Shakespeare's influence has impeded Canadian drama on one
level, on another, it has been responsible for initiating the
extremely fertile and distinct sub-genres of Shakespearean
parodies and serious adaptations. A strong, even acerbic,
tradition of re-rewriting Shakespeare to satirize local
politics began in the eighteenth century. It may, indeed, be
here that we need to seek for a distinct Canadian
Shakespeare.

As a settler/invader colony founded on displacements, Canada
has been well-positioned to deal with revisions and
re-writings of canonical works. Adaptations and
parody--authorized transgression, dependent upon and yet
opposed to an original--are particularly appealing modes to a
country separate from but tied to Britain. Parody may, in
some respects, be regarded as the mode best according with
the Canadian myth of this country as a "blank face" (Mavor
Moore's term; Moore in Rubin 238)), a "nobody" (Marshall
McLuhan; McLuhan 227) or a work-in-progress with multiple
borderlines dependent upon negotiation and debate.

10. "The bubble reputation":
multiplying Shakespeares

If Canadians may have seemed slow to acquire Shakespeare or
to give him a permanent home, they are now eager in their
rush to possess him. Shakespeare is, at present, a profitable
market commodity. While some scholars may attempt to
de-centre him in English departments across North America and
England, the Bard is firmly entrenched in more than the
narrow academic discipline of English studies. A presence
since the eighteenth century in theatricals, in satires and
parodies, adaptations and other re-writings, Shakespeare
today is the property of both high and low culture, stage,
classroom, text, intertext, and webtext. Thoroughly
permeating all aspects of Canadian culture, Shakespeare is a
ready-made, immediately recognizable source of meaning for
any number of endeavours, but especially as a symbol of
English studies.

Such multiplying Shakespeares increase the value of his
ownership and incite competition for him. The Ottawa
Citizen proudly announced on 5 October 1998 that a
Canadian company, Shakespeare by the Sea, was "first off the
mark" in a "worldwide race to perform Edward III,"
possibly a 'lost' play by Shakespeare (Anon, Arts 2). Taking
the discovered text directly from the Internet, the Halifax
troupe was satisfied in performing a play only available in
excerpts. The rush for Shakespeare is even, at times,
literal, as The Globe and Mail reported in 1990: "A
Canadian living in Oxford set the speed record for reciting
Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' soliloquy. Sean Shannon
completed it in 24 seconds. At this rate," wrote Michael
Kesterton, "the entire part could be recited in 17.9 minutes.
Prairie winters are quite cold" (Kesterton B5).

The question of a distinctly Canadian Shakespeare,
shaped by tensions between English and French, by its
relations to the First Nations, to new immigrant
groups, and to its elephantine neighbour to the south,
is now locked into the global context of the World Wide
Web. Numerous Canadian web-sites and chat groups
contribute to the global reach of the Shakespeare
industry. The image of the recently discovered
so-called Sanders portrait, purportedly of Shakespeare,
in the family of a retired Ontario engineer was
instantly transmitted across newspapers and Internet
sites, giving rise to new speculation about the face of
genius, the authority of the Bard, and our relationship
to him. His authority and centrality assisted by the
combined forces of his entrenchment in the canons of
high and low culture, of academia and techno-sphere,
Shakespeareñlike Hamlet's Ghost, here, there and
everywhereñboth reigns supreme in Canada's
multiple, transitional spaces, and still continues to
elude us.